LAUSR

Key Points Question What happens to lung cancer incidence when lung cancer screening is promoted to a population with a smoking prevalence of less than 5%? Findings In this population-based ecological cohort study of approximately 12 million Taiwanese women, the promotion of lung cancer screening was associated with a 6-fold increase in the incidence of early-stage (stages 0-I) lung cancer from 2004 to 2018, whereas there was no change in the incidence of late-stage (stages II-IV) lung cancer. Five-year survival rates have more than doubled to 40% despite stable lung cancer mortality. Meaning Lung cancer screening in a largely nonsmoking population was associated with considerable overdiagnosis and spuriously high 5-year survival rates.